


Office Gossip

by Paradox_Apparition



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-21
Updated: 2016-03-21
Packaged: 2018-05-28 05:48:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6317008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Paradox_Apparition/pseuds/Paradox_Apparition
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"So how many of these people know you own the entire company?"</p><p>"None of them."</p><p> </p><p>In which everyone on the floor but Dave pretty much knows (or assume) that Finch owns a large stake in IFT but indulge him. Nobody ever tells Dave anything.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Office Gossip

In the IT department office of floor 12 in IFT there are three unspoken rules.

1.) If you didn't buy it and didn't get permission, _don't eat it_. The coffee and tea are the only exceptions.

2.) _Don't be an asshole_. You never know when you're going to need a hand.

3.) Be nice to Harold Sparrow but pay him no mind.

The first two rules had been learned by everyone except Dave within two weeks of working there. If anything, they were common courtesy. The last one... Well, that was the product of weeks of office gossip and common conclusions. 

Harold Sparrow is a rather unremarkable mousey sort of man. At least 50, large eyes behind unflattering wire rim glasses, bird-like nose, receding hairline with a tintin-esque haircut, and a limp. He rarely looks anyone in the eye, is demure and reserved at best and painfully shy at worst. On top of that, his code is extremely unremarkable and often riddled with beginner mistakes.

As far as anyone knew he was transferred in from another department after having been in an accident an having to go on medical leave for a few months. Supposedly he'd been working there for 17 years, and though he had been seen around occasionally, it wasn't enough for anyone to think he was just some mid to low level IT employee, much less a senior support engineer. 

A few weeks of gossip later and every one has come to the same conclusions. Either Sparrow was a spy for the Execs, meant to look out for corporate spies -courtesy of Marline, or he was one of the bosses, maybe even _The Boss_. After all, nobody manages to actually be _that_ uninteresting without trying. And Mark argues no company these days keeps an unremarkable employee on for 17 years, one who rarely ever moved up the promotional ladder, when they can find younger models. Though IFT has proven itself to have equal opportunity hiring policies, that's just not good buisiness policy.

Jerry supposes that even the boss gets bored or wants to hide sometimes. And where better to hide than in plain sight in your own company, where almost nobody knows your face. 

It goes without saying nobody bothers telling Dave their theories. He's broken the first two office rules multiple times. And he's always horrible to Sparrow, so nobody thinks he deserves to know.

So they give the man what he wants. They leave Harold Sparrow to be the most uninteresting, unremarkable person ever. They speak with him only when there's a project, or as a passing pleasantry. His code is edited for the easy mistakes without comment, and when employee review comes around they give him kind but generally unremarkable and average marks. Likely just like what he wanted. For almost a year they settle into a sort of status quo.

  
Then one day the status quo is interrupted.

There's a man skulking around the building. He's tall, wearing a fairly nice suit, and is relatively attractive in a sort of silver fox sort of way, though he's not fully grey. He's got clear, attentive blue eyes and a quirky little half smile that makes him slightly more attractive than the first glance, and he's looking for Harold. Not that he gives a name, or a description or even talks to anyone aside from a 'Hi' or 'Hello'. It obvious from the way he looks around, gaze sliding over person after person, looking for someone out of place - or someone a little too good at fading away.

He'd spent several days hanging around IFT, as collaborated by several different sightings within the gossip pool. One day he'd waltzes like he belongs there, and though everyone kept an eye on him they knew the drill. Don't be obvious. Act like you never saw him, if he talks, be polite. He made a beeline to Sparrow's desk and pulled up a chair, sitting at such an angle that the divider wall would block anyone entering the office floor from seeing him until they passed. 

Then Sparrow came in, exchanged greetings with Janice and then hassled by Dave, as per usual, and when he went to his cubicle several people witnessed the personality change they never expected to see. The terse, irritated look on Sparrow's face went against everything they'd seen about the man's cover, he hand even broke character once when dealing with Dave. 

Little snippets of conversation are pulled together later in the break room, the part that most are concerned about are the words, " _So how many of these people know you own the entire company?_ " And, " _None of them_."

That statement not being strictly true (as they hardly thought he owned all of it) now that they had evidence to back up their claims. 

After that, Harold had been slightly glancing around beneath his eyelashes and everyone tried to look natural, causing a gap in what was heard of the conversation. Though the slightly lingering chance of distaste aimed at Dave was definitely seen. What little they overhear at the tail end was pretty odd, but the working theory was that the guy was a PI, scoping out someone, probably a spy and this was a check in. The man handed over a little electronic box, which Sparrow placed in his (noticeably rather sparse) briefcase, and went about his way. 

Janice, of course, couldn't resist trying to get something out of the unusual incident.

"So Harold, who's your friend?" She'd asked.

The split second startled, slightly incredulous, deer-in-headlights look on his face before he turned away and returned to the demure look made for a great image, and someone quickly snapped and saved a picture for office cards when an appropriate occasion came up. After all, the only ones not in the gossip pool were Dave and Sparrow.

"Nobody..."

 Unfortunately the next day sees Harold Sparrow packing up his desk and leaving. The tall guy comes back around, maybe ten minutes later and is confronted by Janice.

"Are you looking for Harold?" She asks with a sigh.

"Is he taking another personal day?" The man makes a few feeble glances around, as if he could catch sight of the man like his namesake just around his peripherals.

"I don't think so." What she means is, everyone highly doubts it. "I was hoping you knew. Maggie said he'd been transferred, but Dave said he was laid off."

Well, that's what Dave hoped, and with the sheer level of passive aggressive scorn he was on the receiving end of that day, maybe Dave would request a transfer or quit himself. After all, they actually liked Harold; as the Power-That-Be he wasn't that bad.

"He didn't even say goodbye." With that Janice walks away, leaving the man to answer his phone to what must be a call from Sparrow and amble away.

A late arrival reveals information that he'd seen Sparrow dumping his box of belongings into a trash bin just inside the front doors before the man wandered off into the rain.  

A unanimous sigh goes around the office followed by numerous glares aimed at Dave's back where he's obliviously chatting up one of the unimpressed secretaries. The idiot visibly twitches.

_Really it's such a shame._

**Author's Note:**

> Um. The thought kinda just popped into my head that with so many aliases, something had to give.


End file.
